How’s it going all,

I’ve been in the industry since 2010 and to be honest I’ve wasted much of my time in the industry just getting by and not using my time to excel and become a great mechanic. I am currently a maintenance mechanic and I want to become a GREAT troubleshooter. I have the drive and determination to do it but I really need to learn the correct way to read prints thoroughly. I am willing to compensate anyone out there that would want to pass on their knowledge and take on a “student”.
Please feel free to message me here to talk further about this
I should be a lot further ahead but I’m of the mindset it is never too late. And I’m determined to become better.


Thank you in advance
Charlie

Charlie,

If you have a local trade/tech school I would see if they offer any classes specializing in motor controls, PLCs and micro-controllers (electronics wouldn't hurt either). Print reading and some hands on learning/troubleshooting should be a staple of the class. I went to my local votec and took their automated industrial systems class, and I consider it one of the best choices I've ever made. It started me out on a solid foundation before I joined the elevator trade.

If that's not an option for you, there are surprisingly a lot of good videos on basic electrical troubleshooting and print reading on youtube.
The concept will carry over to elevators and scale up. If I come across any videos here in the next few days I'll post them here.

Also, when your looking at a set of prints, learn to break it down into sections. It can be overwhelming looking at it as a whole, but if you section it off in your mind and focus on one thing at a time it's not so bad.

Example - Grab an older print (ESCO or other relay logic hydro, if you have one. Its more simple for you to start out on.) and trace what happens from when someone presses a call button, all the way to the motor starter and arrival at the destination.

After you are confident in this you can generally carry the same concept over to the newer style controllers. You'll realize its essentially the same, there are just a lot more safety and redundancy features. Also the newer GAL elevators have some excellent prints. Everything is layed out in a grid, and everything is labeled or color coded. There should be a legend in any print you look at that will tell you the what the symbols are. Get real familiar with them. If you don't know what a diode, triac, SCR, thyristor, ect. are look them up and learn about what they are and what they are generally used for. Otherwise the best way to learn is to just tinker around and get your hands dirty. If your having a particular problem that you've spent hours and and can't make heads or tails of it, take a break get some fresh air. When you come back try to think outside of the train of thought you were in earlier. Sometimes its easy to chase a problem the wrong way for hours or days.

Here are a few video suggestions that should keep you busy. (copy and paste the link into your browser)

How to Read AC Schematics and Diagrams Basics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsLXJZ46xjk

How to do Electrical Troubleshooting of Electrical Motor Control Circuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PdFPtkG1OY

Motor Control 101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aml0VGzNXEo

VFD 101 Basics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA-6TNhFsE4

What is a PLC? PLC Basics Pt1 (long, but good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLYosK87D8E

Also, since most things are serial link now-days, your eventually going to want to get familiar with the following:
RS232
RS485
CANBUS

That's all I can think of for now I may add more later on if I can think of anything else. PM me if you have any questions, I'll be glad to pass on what little I know. Cheers.

Thank you so much for the detailed response. I can’t wait to get into all those links I get very very overwhelmed when I look at certain prints because i never know where the voltage is going or coming from but it’s probably mostly because I’m getting myself worked up.

I love the GAL PRINTS. when I sit down with them on my newer jobs. It makes it a lot easier to “get-it” I need to familiarize myself with diode, triac, SCR, thyristor, ect. But I’m sure that will come with time and me willing to put in the work to learn it.

Like I said. I wasted so much time just getting by rather then trying to teach myself but I am 32 I guess it’s not too late.